I took over planning for today’s session with the ten-year-old boy.
I wanted the hour and a half to be fun, so I started with a theme: ‘POP! Into a Good Book’ was the idea I came up with, and I had popcorn as a snack with a red bowl, red table cloth, red design, and a red notebook for the student to keep. We then set a fun book display up incorporating Abraham Lincoln books, because that was an interest of the student.
The first thing we did was strengths/goals. We had the student list two things he thought he was successful at and two things he wanted to work on over the course of the six weeks.
He wrote:
- I am good at sight words.
- I can read quickly.
For things to work on, he said:
- Don’t add ‘the’ or ‘are’ [doesn’t want to read too fast and add additional words]
- Learn more sight words
I thought this was a great way to get him involved and accountable in his own learning. We also had him write the goals in his notebook on the first page—that way he could be both encouraged and focused throughout his learning at home and with us teachers.
We then selected an Abraham Lincoln book at instructional level for him to read aloud. Our focus was for him to get through the entirety of the book without stopping; then we would ask him a series of 15 comprehension questions orally. These would vary in difficulty.
This went well, with only a few minor interruptions [much better than last session!] The student was also able to answer questions with great recall!
This activity took longer than we anticipated, so we switched after the questions to an Inference Game. In this game, each player read his/her card aloud and answered, based on the paragraph, what he/she inferred. If he/she was correct, then the player could move the amount of spaces rolled on the die.
This was fun because the student not only read aloud and silently his own cards, but was able to hear the cards of the other teachers and decide whether or not the teachers were right—double strengthening his skill! During this time we also got to eat popcorn and have fun, so it was a great way to end the day’s session!